Poor Old Shine is an alt-Americana band from Mansfield, Connecticut with two EPs under their belt and a new self-titled studio album that the website PopMatters calls “enthralling” and compares favorably to the work of the Avett Brothers and Old Crow Medicine Show. “Poor Old Shine revitalizes, rather than simply revives, the stomping, galloping country swing of an old-time string band,” says the website Creative Loafing Charlotte, and adds that the band “has the audacity to show just how weird ‘tradition’ can be.”
 
The band features Chris Freeman on banjo, Antonio Alcorn on banjo and mandolin, Max Shakun on guitar and pump organ, and Harrison Goodale on bass. Chris and Antonio met at a folk club on campus at the University of Connecticut and played their first gig at the legendary New Haven club, Toad’s Place. Max and Harrison soon joined in, and the band began working on original songs influenced by Pete Seeger, vintage bluegrass, and groups like the Avetts. Their music is urgent, energetic, and exciting, with beautiful close harmonies and intricately layered instrumental passages. “We wouldn’t have been able to make this new album without exploring the traditional bluegrass sound, but we were really excited to also experiment,” Chris says. It’s an experiment that succeeds brilliantly!

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Photo by Sarah Lefrançois